A factor that has been neglected in virtually all anthropological models that deal with the transition of societies from peasant to modern is the factor of population change. Thus a major characteristic of peasant villages is high migration rates, a characteristic that we maintain contributes to the general economic and social conservatism of such societies by encouraging those persons without access to valued resources to leave. Our research aims toward elucidating the role of population dynamics in both the encouraging of economic change and the resistence of economic change. Our hypothesis is that in communities with reduced rates of outmigration, there will develop a push for modernization and industrialization, whereas in communities with high rates of outmigration such development will be resisted. Research on this hypothesis has been begun by the senior researcher in the fishing/farming village of Caraquet, New Brunswick, Canada, research which has demonstrated the viability of the above hypothesis. This research will continue in the summer of 1976, by further research in Caraquet, and new research in the nearby community of Miscou Island.